There were two rounds of interviews; speed interviews plus individual interview. The ‘speed’ interview section involves every candidate to be interviewed by every interviewee all in the same room for 1 minute, there were around 20 interviewers on the day. The one-on-one interview is focused on the job being applied for, it is carried out by two people.

Unfortunately I am both surprised and disappointed with my interviews at JLP as I feel I was not treated as an individual, but instead I was assessed unfairly on difficult and precise questions. The interviewers showed little interest in me as a person, and compared to interviews I have had in the past, I felt judged and as if I was not given the opportunity to fully express myself. I felt as if I were in an exam rather than a interview. For a partnership so proud of valuing their employees, I was disappointed that so much was expected from an interviewee (presentation, detailed Q&A, and detailed SMART responses to multiple questions), however no feedback was given back in return. I was interviewed by 2 people, one read pre prepared questions off a sheet which were very precise and quite difficult to answer. I believe I was automatically put at a disadvantage when I did not have an example for one of the questions as I honestly had never been in the situation they were asking about. The other interviewer noted my responses to the questions asked, adding to the pressure of an already stressful interview. I am also very surprised that John Lewis do not offer interview feedback as the notes taken during the interview seemed to be very detailed. Considering I spent over a day preparing, and an hour in the interview, I would have hoped these notes could have been shared with unsuccessful candidates to show a little appreciation for the hard work put in. Overall the interview felt lazy and impersonal. To improve the interview process I would suggest interviewers focus more on the individual and their personality/ experience as a whole and if they fits the role in hand, rather than making sure the interviewee ticks all the required boxes in their detailed responses.